Even back when I was the age of some of these folks, I knew better. I knew that being a software engineer was going to pay more than being a Bio lab rat, so there was that.
I also, at one point, was working five jobs (e.g., Resident Assistant, Teaching Assistant, Terminal Room Coordinator, Student Operator, and Programmer) on top of a full course load. I made sure I got through without incurring any debt at all.
Because I could do the math – unlike these other “smaht” people:
Shed a tear for the grown adults who took out gigantic federal loans for a master’s degree worth nothing
The Journal pulls back the curtain on a preposterous higher-education scam run by corrupt elite universities like Columbia at the expense of imbeciles who can’t manage a budget and lavishly enabled by the federal government, which of course also can’t manage a budget. During the Bush era, the feds passed a new loan program called Grad Plus to help students who want to pursue a graduate education pay their way. Grad Plus has three distinguishing features. The interest rates on the loans can be quite high, upwards of eight percent. Unlike with undergrad loans, there’s no lending limit so some students borrow well into six figures. And if the loans aren’t paid off in 20-25 years, taxpayers are on the hook for the balance.
Who knew that SJW math was in force that far back (e.g., don’t have to show the work and any answer will do)? Normally I’d have no issue with them winning the Math / Financial Darwin Award but, in the end, the joke is all on the rest of us – we’re “on the hook for the balance”.
…You’d want to think very carefully about your future income stream and whether an MFA even from Columbia is worth taking out $100,000 in loans to obtain it. Or $200,000 in loans. Or, in some cases, $300,000 in loans….But many of these chumps believe that their future success isn’t in doubt so they sign the loans without making that calculation. Ultimately some end up earning $50,000 a year or less after graduation.
…At New York University, graduates with a master’s degree in publishing borrowed a median $116,000 and had an annual median income of $42,000 two years after the program, the data on recent borrowers show. At Northwestern University, half of those who earned degrees in speech-language pathology borrowed $148,000 or more, and the graduates had a median income of $60,000 two years later. Graduates of the University of Southern California’s marriage and family counseling program borrowed a median $124,000 and half earned $50,000 or less over the same period…
Tough noogies and no sympathy from me. Read’em for some head-shaking examples:
One 29-year-old with an MFA in film from Columbia makes $30-50K per year as an assistant in Hollywood and is carrying debt of almost $300,000, which continues to grow. Another guy who graduated in 2015 earns between $30-60K and graduated with $233,000 in debt. That’s now swelled to $331,000 thanks to the high interest rates on the loans. Yet another grad is currently working at a TJ Maxx because he couldn’t land a job in academia. He took out $115,000 in grad-school loans and now owes $156,000.
I really wish I could find it but I do remember a story years ago of the Princeton gal who majored in Early Childhood Education that racked up over $100,000 in debt. Basically, a daycare teacher – which MIGHT pay $10/hour back then at an elite center. And she moaned and cried during the interview saying that she’d never pay off the loans.
No kidding, Sherlock. Going to an Ivy League school is NOT a sure thing afterward when you make such a bad decision. Where were her parents, to whom I place the highest blame, in advising her?
How about her high school guidance counselor? And what of the Admittance people at Prin…oh, never mind, they just saw the $$$ signs. But the loan officer?
Too many never count the cost or have stupid ideas of what they will earn when they get out. I’d love to just say “over optimistic” that that’s a fork in the road that just doesn’t work or cover this.
(H/T: Hot Air)
